Bundled Pricing and Loyalty Discounts: Navigating the Confusing Antitrust Standards

Avoiding Anticompetitive Conduct When Implementing Marketing and Pricing Strategies

Recording of a 90-minute CLE webinar with Q&A

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Conducted on Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Recorded event now available

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Course Materials

This CLE course will examine the various standards the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and courts are applying in analyzing whether bundled pricing and loyalty discount programs enhance competition or are exclusionary. The panel will explain best practices for companies and their counsel to avoid antitrust liability when implementing or changing pricing strategies given the lack of clear guidance on this issue.

Description

Antitrust counsel and their clients face ongoing confusion and inconsistency regarding bundled pricing and loyalty discounts and rebates. Evolving legal theories and standards and unclear court guidance on when marketing and pricing changes harm competition create challenges for companies seeking to implement bundled pricing and loyalty discount programs.

In the absence of clear guidance, antitrust counsel must advise companies on the various ways the DOJ or a court might analyze their pricing strategies and guide them in structuring a solid bundled pricing and loyalty discount program that is likely to withstand antitrust scrutiny.

Listen as our authoritative panel of antitrust attorneys examines the methods the DOJ and courts are using to analyze bundled pricing and loyalty discount/rebate programs, the situations in which one method is used rather than another, and best practices to avoid antitrust violations.

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Outline

  1. Defining bundled pricing and loyalty discounts/rebates
  2. Legal framework for analyzing antitrust risks of bundled pricing and loyalty discounts
    1. Sherman Act
    2. Robinson-Patman Act
  3. Latest case law addressing bundled pricing and loyalty discounts/rebates
  4. Best practices to avoid antitrust liability for marketing and pricing practices

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key questions:

  • What business conduct is permissible in offering bundled pricing and loyalty discounts?
  • How does discounting a range of products put a company at risk of violating antitrust laws?
  • Does the risk change between a bundled rebate plan and loyalty rebate plan and what are the factors that affect risk?

Faculty

James J. Long
James J. Long
Shareholder
Briggs & Morgan

Mr. Long's litigation and counseling practice is concentrated in the areas of antitrust law, franchise law, and...  |  Read More

Michael B. Miller
Michael B. Miller
Partner
Morrison & Foerster

Mr. Miller's practice includes all aspects of complex antitrust and commercial litigation in federal and state...  |  Read More

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